Hannibal

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Ross Leckie. Hannibal

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CARTHAGE

MERCENARIES

SPAIN

COMMAND

WAR

MARCH

ITALY

DELAY

DEFEAT

DEATH

EPILOGUE

APOLOGIA

Also by Ross Leckie

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oἰ μὲν ἰππήων τρότον, οἰ δὲ πέσδων, οἰ δὲ νάων ϕαῖσ’ ἐπὶ γᾶν μέλαιναν ἔμμεναι κάλλιστον, ἔγω δὲ κῆν’ ὄτ-τω τις ἔραται

– Sappho

.....

Once my father came in when we were reading the Ephemerides. “Reading again, Hannibal? Silenus, I want a doer of deeds, not a reader of words.” But I knew what I was reading to do and what I did not even Alexander could have done. I had none of Alexander’s Macedonians. I took a mercenary army, men brought together from the corners of the earth, and held them together through fear and love. They were often hungry and unpaid, but they did not betray me. For sixteen years we fought in Italy alone.

But let my story tell itself. I am still in Carthage. I am six or seven. Silenus teaches me. I learn. Those days seem still. Each passes as the last. I sit alone with Silenus from breakfast. A slave brings us lunch. Then two hours more of learning, then my ride. An hour of instruction from Abdolonim, my father’s chief groom, then freedom to gallop far.

.....